Definitely not for folks looking for a progressive RPG. Or even an RPG that would have passed for progressive last gen. Or the gen before that.
This is basically a 16-bit, old school RPG dressed up with superficial next gen trappings, like very clean (but not particularly impressive) visuals and a decent quality soundtrack.
Charming is a good word to describe it. The designs are nice (though DQ8's cel shading rendered Toriyama's designs with more visual style), the combat is snappy (even if the system definitely feels like something you've visited a dozen or more times before), and to give it a bit of not-completely-old-school spicing, there are no random encounters. But grinding is still rewarded.
The rudimentary class system feels right out of FFV. The game lets you switch up classes really early, within the first few hours. It's a nice touch, even if there are only 9 (I think) classes.
There's some slowdown during battles. Kind of inexplicable slowdown, too, happening at weird times when there's really not much going on (the constant slowdown during post-battle flourishes comes to mind). It never bugged me that much. It's not like the game slows down to a Two Worlds-esque crawl or anything, and I have yet to encounter slowdown during real gameplay.
I've only put 3 hours in, but unless things take a terrible downturn, this is a solid "good" game for fans of the genre. And by fans of the genre, I mean those that know they are going to be knee deep in something that appears to have been designed in like 1995. For some of us, that sounds like a good damned time.
EDIT: Also, let's you play with the voices in either Japafaganese, English, or French. I picked Japafaganese because I had heard no indication on how the dub was, and I figured better safe than sorry. You can also skip cutscenes.
